Our Thought Leaders Circle members took some time out from their busy schedules to offer some predictions for what they see happening in 2022.

First off, Aaron Goldman, Chief Marketing Officer at Mediaocean says 2022 will be the year of the Metaverse.

2022 will be the year of the metaverse. And 2023 will be the year of the metaverse. And 2024 will be the year of the metaverse. And so on for the next 10 years. Very similar to how every year was "the year of mobile" until it finally caught up to desktop in terms of digital ad spend. And how every year was "the year of digital" until it finally caught up to traditional ad spend.

My point is that the metaverse really is a big deal. And we all need to take it seriously. But it will take some time before we get to mass consumer adoption. And from there, it will take more time before we get to proper advertiser allocation. All that said, now is the time to begin experimenting and 2022 will be the year of the metaverse.

Tom Fochetta, Senior Vice President at Samsung Ads predicts that in 2022 hardware will win once again win out over software.

I once had someone tell me that the road is littered with hardware companies trying to make a business out of advertising. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Hardware will continue to become a key asset for advertisers in 2022. Hardware is having its moment and proving that the first-party data it has access to, unique ad experiences it offers, and consumer loyalty it has built, is an unbeatable combination for advertisers that want to reach consumers.

Justin Fromm, Head of Research at LG Ads doubled down on the market recognizing the value of hardware, especially well-designed hardware.

In 2022, smart TV adoption will continue to rise as viewers discover the updated interfaces and ditch their dongles.

Richie Hyden, COO & Co-Founder at IRIS.TV is thinking this will be the year both the buy and sell sides come together to demand adoption of contextual data.

We will see an increasing reliance on contextual data to augment identity data, especially for video. Both because identity is under pressure, as we are all aware, and also because contextual, in concert with identity, enhances performance. To date, adoption has been slowed by a lack of data and lack of infrastructure to facilitate deployment at scale. 2022 will be the year the buy and sell side come together to demand more universal adoption and create processes to do so.

Emily Wood, VP of Business Development at iSpot is thinking 2022 will be the year we see deeper adoption of new ad measurement currencies…and a return to weekly appointment TV.

New currencies for cross platform TV and CTV ad measurement won’t just be implemented by networks, but integrated into the edges of activation platforms and bespoke agency planning tools. And more streaming companies will learn from Coach Lasso and revert to once a week episodes. Gen Z will think it’s a new network strategy.

Josh Schmeissing, CMO of Tubular Labs, sees 2022 as the year social video goes mainstream.

Agencies will start normalize buying and evaluating social video alongside CTV as the best way to reach people under 35 and social first sensations such as Bama Rush will work their way into “traditional media channels”

Steve DeMain, VP of Engagement at VIZIO predicts that smart TV platforms will roll out interactive viewing experiences next year. (Hoping he is right!)

One of the things we will see from smart tv platforms in 2022 is the introduction of interactive content viewing experiences. Over the past two years due to the pandemic our behaviors have changed in many ways including integrating new technologies in to our daily lives. This change will accelerate interactive content viewing experiences in the near future.

Aziz Rahimtoola, CEO and Founder of Sabio is looking forward to seeing how the erosion of GRPs will impact ad spend in the hotly contested 2022 elections.

Egoistic platform reach, combined with data centric approach to reaching audiences, will be the focus for marketers in the coming year. In 2022 we will, for the first time in history, see what happens when acceleration of gross rating points erosion in traditional TV meets one of the most anticipated mid term elections cycles

Jeff Fagel, CMO at MadHive sees 2022 as the year that DTC brands make the move from social to OTT.

In 2022, we will start to see an entirely new generation of DTC brands that have maxed out performance through Facebook and Instagram funnel dollars to OTT. Digitally delivered TV has lowered the barrier to entry for these social-first brands looking to reach new audiences, while maintaining the digital targeting and ROI theses brands expect. And when it comes to reaching specific audiences, advertisers will look to increase their investment in local campaigns that can be delivered at national scale. We're also going to see advertisers adopt full-stack solutions to support their omnichannel efforts to bridge the platform gap and understand ad impact across linear, OTT, search, social or DOOH

Do you have a prediction for 2022?

If you’d like to share it with us, just use the form below and we’ll keep a running list on this post, updated weekly through the end of the year.